Pentagon announces airstrikes on ISIL targets in Iraq

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Pentagon announced on Friday that the U.S. military have launched targeted airstrikes on forces of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) by dropping two laser-guided bombs on its mobile artillery.

"The mission really is to protect American personnel in Erbil and potentially even in and around Baghdad. And this is an important point -- to try to help Iraqi security forces as they go after this threat," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said at an emergency press briefing.

"This is a threat inside their country, to their people, to their sovereignty, and ultimately this is an Iraqi fight to fight," he said.

MOSUL, Iraq, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Sunni insurgents of the Islamic State (IS) have seized Iraq's largest dam near Mosul and are closing to a major refugee camp in Nineveh province, a provincial official said on Friday. Full story